Alex Perry

Alex Perry is an author and TIME contributor who has covered Africa, Asia and the Middle East. His latest book, The Rift: the Future of Africa, will be published in late 2014.

Articles from Contributor

Is Malaria Twice as Deadly as We Think It Is?

The news that malaria kills almost twice as many people a year as previously believed — not 655,000 but a staggering 1.2 million — is only the latest evidence of how poorly even the best scientists and researchers understand …

Youssou N’Dour Tries to Go from Music Superstar to President in Senegal

World music fans know him as a giant, 30-somethings will instantly recognize his voice from the 1994 worldwide smash “7 seconds” and followers of West African politics will, as of this week, know him as a candidate for President in Senegal’s February 26 election. But to see how big Youssou N’Dour really is, you need to hang out with him …

Congo’s Election Chaos: When Having the Vote Fixes Nothing

When the Democratic Republic of Congo held its first multiparty general election for 41 years in 2006, the event was hailed as a milestone on the slow march out of civil war and towards functionality for the world’s largest failed state. Five years later, as the country holds another poll, the naivete of the Western belief in …

A Novel Response to the World’s Worst Famine: War.

In September, Somalis kidnappers kill a British tourist and his wife; later they kidnap a disabled French tourist, who subsequently dies; then in October they abduct two Spanish aid workers. In reply Kenya, whose economy depends heavily on tourism, sends hundreds of troops into southern Somalia in pursuit of an al-Qaeda affiliate, …

Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?


If the history of war teaches us anything, it’s that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world’s great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy – Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq – only underline how tricky …

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